2,500 Bonus Miles with the Barclay US Airways Mastercard

There may finally be a reason to dust off the US Airways Premier World Mastercard: Through December 31, 2014 Barclays is offering cardholders 2 bonus miles per $1 spent on the following categories:

Gas

Dining

Toy, game, and department stores

Bonuses are capped at 2,500 miles, so only the first $1,250 in spend is eligible for the 2 point payout. Cardholders must register by October 20, 2014 either via an email activation link (check your inbox to see if you got one) or by using the special registration code sent via mail. The promotion started yesterday, which is also when the flyer came in the mail. If you received neither of these, simply call Barclays at 866-419-0881 to get registered for the promotion. Bonus points will post 6-8 weeks after the promotion ends.

These category bonus promotions are becoming fairly frequent, with both Barclay and Bank of America looking to wrestle credit card spending away from Chase. This latest bonus category promotion one is appropriately timed to coincide with the holiday shopping season. Considering the average American spends $1,000 on holiday gifts alone, it’s not difficult to max out $1,250 in the above listed categories over a three month period. Throw in an endless line-up of year-end sales and that bonus is looking more and more attainable, regardless of whether you’re shopping for the holidays or not.

The 2,500 point bonus offered by Barclays isn’t quite as generous as the 5% cash back/5 points per $1 offered to Chase Freedom cardholders shopping at Amazon, Zappos and department stores. However, it’s a nice supplement, especially if you plan on doing a great deal of shopping through the end of the year. Having another card to channel the extra bonus category spend to is only a plus.

Another option for generating 5 points per $1 is to buy department store and gas gift cards at an office supply store with your Ink Bold or Ink Plus card. With the Ink Plus offering a 70,000 point sign-up bonus, this is a great way to knock off part of that $5,000 spending requirement and earn bonus points on your credit card spending.

With manufactured spending becoming a bit more challenging, simply channeling your everyday spend on a category bonus credit card is an easy way to increase your point earnings.

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I called customer service also and was told that I was ineligible for this specific offer. They weren’t able to offer anything else either (except a 0% balance transfer, which I don’t need and don’t think it helps me at all with earning miles).

I too was not targeted and called. The first rep told be I was not eligible for the offer. I called back a few hours later and the second rep activated the offer within 1 minute of me asking. Hang up and call back!

I just called a second time. I was again told that my account is not eligible for this promotion (or any marketing promotion). The CSR alluded to being a new account. I just got the card within the last 2-3 months. I’m giving up on this one for now.

If you’re looking to round up some Dividend Miles for holiday shopping (especially since department stores are included) it’s a good deal. While I like buying gift cards, you do miss out on purchase protection by not using your card directly.

I did not receive the offer by email so I called and tried to register (I explained that I was a new cardholder and a friend told me about the offer), but they would not enroll me without the offer code.

As a goodwill gesture though, the CSR offered to credit 2500 miles to my account without any spend requirement!